Sometimes you just have to take a look around to realize you live in a truly special place.

During the past several months, Jackie and I have enjoyed several weekend meanders among some of the many interesting places that can be found in and around Cincinnati.

For example, the magnificent building to the left is Hughes High School, built back when public buildings mattered, when schools were trophy projects for art and architecture, when people were proud of their support for civic projects. Sadly, no new schools are built to last and very few are built to be beautiful at all. Can you imagine a new school today being built with gargoyles?

Yet that's exactly what they did at Hughes, built in 1908.

And can you guess where this bearded face might be found? Why that would be on the old part of the University of Cincinnati's campus. that face is an adornment for a light post that guards the entrance to a grand old library.

If you are looking for a nice walkabout, take a stroll through UC's campus. Take a look at the great names carved into the Physics building. Walk through the old quad and imagine being a student again, thinking about big ideas. I grew up perceiving UC as a commuter school with a good programs in engineering, design and music. But if you haven't been there lately, you will be surprised how much has changed.

The Hughes-UC walkabout was just one of several weekend walks Jackie and I have taken since fall to take a closer look at the places where we live. We started Sept. 28, 2014, with Newport's East Row.

Thanks to our walk there, I felt compelled to look up the place. I learned that Newport was named after Christopher Newport, commander of the first English ships to drop colonists off in Jamestown in 1603. That name was apparently selected by General James Taylor, who pioneered Newport in the 1790s using on 1,500 acres inherited from his father, who got the land for serving with George Washington in the French and Indian War.

Taylor's mansion, built in Greek Revival style in 1845, still stands. The East Row got started in the late 1800s when Gen. Taylor's grandson decided to subdivide the family's estate. Now the historic district includes about 1,000 homes, all unique and many of them works of art. As you walk west to east, the historic tour info says, you can see the evolutions in popular architectural styles: from Italianate to Queen Anne to Colonial Revival. Even some Bungalow and Craftsman styles appeared in the 1920s before the area was fully built out.

We marveled at the doorways, the columns, the brickwork and woodwork and wondered why people won't build cool stuff like this anymore. Is it really too expensive? Seriously?

Then on Oct. 5, 2014, we strolled through Lebanon, Ohio, of many nice places around Cincinnati where you can find tons of history and charm and interesting details.

As we walked, Jackie did most of the photo shooting, zooming in on the details you can see when walking around but not when you zip by in a car on your way to somewhere else.

The tiny control tower at the old train station is one of the odder structures you'll see. There's also a vintage gas station, a downtown with lots of historic markers to browse and a bunch of stately homes with grand doorways, huge windows and stories to tell.

On Oct. 11, 2014, we visited Mariemont, Ohio, one of at least three planned communities in Greater Cincinnati. The village square features an excellent independent movie theatre, very good restaurants and a Graeter's ice cream store. The clientele of the businesses around the square is quite upscale even though the village was designed to be mixed income. A number of Tudor style multifamily dwellings were supposed to be for affordable housing. Maybe some are still affordable, but I'm not sure. Most of the single-family homes are certainly high-priced for the region.

Mariemont was the brainchild of Mary Emery, the widow of a man who gained a fortune in candlemaking, chemicals and real estate. He died in 1906. She started spreading the money around, becoming a benefactor of the Cincinnati Zoo, Cincinnati Children's (my employer), and much more. She rounded up a bunch of architects to design an "national exemplar" community. Construction started around 1923.

It really is worth walking through. The neighborhood historical society offers an online walking tour guide describing the key buildings. You won't see the blocks of attached apartment/rowhouse/flats anywhere else in Cincinnati.

One funny note: we thought Mariemont was the oldest example of a planned community in our region. We were wrong about that.

On Jan. 31, 2015, we had a couple of hours to kill on a brisk winter day after dropping Rori at a Walnut Hills event. So we drove a few blocks and parked the Fiat at DeSales Corner, the centerpiece of East Walnut Hills and one of the latest revival success stories in the city.

Things were looking rough for this area not very long ago. But a new development brought new spaces for a coffee shop, some restaurants and apartments. All within view of several blocks of historic buildings, many built at oddly sharp angles to follow the shape of the street. All within the shadow of the ornate St. Francis DeSales church.

Want to get some exercise on a nice afternoon? Stroll the several blocks between O'Bryonville and DeSales Corner along Madison Road. If you can't ooh and ahh as you pass the many old mansions along the way, you are sadly jaded.

On Feb. 7, winter gave us a break and Jackie and I decided to check out the village of Glendale on a really sunny day. Both of us had driven through this old village many times as we traveled from point A to B along Sharon Road. Both of us noticed the old village square next to the railroad tracks. But neither of us had stopped to look around...until now.

Glendale claims to be Ohio's first planned community. It was built right next to a rail line in 1855. The well-off industrialists of the era could bask in rural, leafy quiet while strolling along curvy tree-lined streets. Then they could catch a train for a quick rumble to work in bustling, booming, filthy, smelly Cincinnati.

This history was interesting to us, because in the fall, we had hiked through and around the planned village of Mariemont, a place with its own fascinating history. We didn't know Glendale happened first.

If you like history, wine, or a fine pub, spend a day in Glendale. We certainly enjoyed strolling along there. There's a fountain dedicated by William A. Procter that's also a streetlight. (seems a bit dangerous) And even though the passenger depot is just a museum now, lots of freight trains still roll through. If you stand in certain places, you could easily touch them as they go by. But that would not be wise.

Not sure where the next walkabout will be. But for now, here are some other images we gathered.